Talks began with a meeting between Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov.
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Dmitry Medvedev made a statement to the press following Russian-Ukrainian intergovernmental talks
Dmitry Medvedev: I’ve just held talks with Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. To be sure, top-level meetings are a necessity. We spent a lot of time today trying to find out where we stand in our relations and affirmed that while, in some respects, they are progressing well and there are a lot of good projects that we can use to expand our relations, there are unresolved issues as well. For example, our trade is declining, which is a bad sign. It’s declined for two years in a row, which, of course, has to do with the economic situation, but there are hidden reserves which we’ve agreed to focus on.
Of course, we focused on traditional themes, such as the strategy for developing relations between Russia and Ukraine, including the participation, or non-participation, of Ukraine in the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. We talked about the benefits and shortcomings of Ukraine’s observer status and the future of Ukraine, should Ukraine make a different decision. For my part, I was very open about what we believe is the right thing to do in order to further integrate Ukraine into the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space.
Of course, we spoke about the gas issue, which is a complex subject, but even though there are certain difficulties, we still had a positive discussion. The Russian side noted the slow progress in pumping gas into underground storage tanks located in Ukraine, which we need in order to ensure uninterrupted gas supplies to Europe during winter peak consumption. Our Ukrainian colleagues promised to look into this situation, and we informed them that we would also keep an eye on developments in order to avoid the problems we had some time ago.
Overall, we had a good meeting and agreed to hold a session of the Committee for Economic Development at the level of prime ministers. Thank you.